The Da Vinci Code | Chapters 82–96 | Summary

Summary

Chapter 82

Teabing has Rémy drive to the Temple Church near Fleet Street in London. During the drive Sophie asks Langdon for advice about whether or not to make the Grail public if they find it.

Chapter 83

Teabing, Langdon, and Sophie enter the Church, and Teabing concocts a bizarre story to convince an altar boy to let them tour the Church on their own. They enter the circular chamber where 10 knights are supposedly interred in stone sarcophagi.

Chapter 84

Rémy has parked the car on a deserted side street. He unties Silas, thinking, "Soon I will be a man of leisure." Silas asks, but Rémy denies he is the Teacher directing Silas's mission. He gives Silas a gun. Meanwhile, Fache has landed at the small airfield outside London. He is determined to find out if there were passengers aside from Teabing and Rèmy on board. Fache finds the pilot and "with the help of his sidearm," which he likely used to intimidate the "terrified pilot," he gets the pilot to confess that there were more passengers on the flight. Fache gets a call from Bishop Aringarosa, and they discuss the failing mission. It seems as if they might be conspiring to get the Grail. Fache tells Aringarosa to land at the small English airfield.

Chapter 85

Teabing, Langdon, and Sophie examine the tombs. They look for the orb mentioned in the message but find none. The altar boy is suspicious and states that what they are looking at are not tombs but effigies. There are no bodies in the Church. The trio is confused, thinking they missed something. Suddenly an armed man in a tuxedo enters and grabs the altar boy. The man tells the others that they will obey him and leave the Church or he will contact the police.

Chapter 86

Silas sneaks up behind Sophie and grabs her. He will leave if they give him the keystone Langdon is holding. Silas aims the gun at Langdon. Langdon states he will smash the cryptex on the floor rather than turn it over. Rémy sees the situation deteriorating. The Teacher had told Silas not to harm anyone. If Silas ruins his plans, Rémy will not get the wealth the Teacher promised him. Rémy raises his gun toward Teabing and threatens to shoot him unless the cryptex is handed over. Langdon hands Silas the cryptex to save Teabing's life. Then Rémy takes Teabing hostage and drags him and the altar boy from the Church.

Chapter 87

Collet is still looking for clues at Teabing's French estate. A policeman summons him to the barn loft where they find sophisticated computers, monitors, and video and multichannel audio equipment. It is Rémy's monitoring center. He must have planted tiny microphones in many places. They find tape recordings on a nearby shelf.

Chapter 88

Langdon blames himself for Teabing's kidnapping. Sophie calls the London police to help save Teabing. She must slow Rémy down so she and Langdon can find the knight's tomb first. She is aghast when her call is transferred to Captain Fache. Fache tells Sophie that he now believes Langdon is innocent. She identifies Rémy as the kidnapper, which angers Fache. Langdon decides to go to King's College library to use their religion database.

Chapter 89

Fache has the safe in Teabing's plane drilled open and finds the large cryptex. He speaks to Vernet on the phone and assures him the bank will not be exposed.

Chapter 90

Collet finds a list of people who were bugged by Rémy, including Saunière. He is astounded to learn that the investigation at the Louvre was taped by a bug placed in Saunière's office.

Chapter 91

Rémy has supposedly tied Teabing up in the back of the limousine. Silas sits in front, holding the black cryptex. The Teacher phones Silas and is delighted to learn he has the cryptex. He says he wants Rémy to bring it to him so he can punish Rémy for kidnapping Teabing. The Teacher tells Silas to lay low at London's Opus Dei residence. After speaking to the Teacher, Rémy feels bad about Silas. Silas has no idea he has been used and what terrible fate awaits him.

Chapter 92

Langdon and Sophie arrive at King's College library. Langdon explains the urgency of their research. He shows the librarian two lines of their last message. The librarian begins a search on a library computer. Langdon and Sophie wait impatiently after getting some useless results. The librarian alters the search terms and all three have tea.

Chapter 93

Silas throws away the gun before entering the Opus Dei residence. Silas is shown to a room where he prays and goes to sleep. Meanwhile, another monk answers a phone call from the London police. They are looking for Silas. The monk tells them Silas is asleep upstairs.

Chapter 94

The Teacher is waiting in London's St. James's Park. Rémy arrives, and the Teacher gets into the limousine. Rémy shows the Teacher the cryptex, and they toast their mission's success. As he drinks the liquor, Rémy starts choking. It's a severe allergic reaction to the nuts the Teacher put in the drink. Rémy dies. The Teacher excuses the murder because Rémy disobeyed orders not to appear at the Temple Church. The Teacher goes to the rear of the limousine where he kills the person tied up there. The Teacher is now certain he knows where to find the Grail. Meanwhile, Bishop Aringarosa's plane lands at the small English airfield. A policeman starts driving the bishop to Scotland Yard, but a radio message diverts the police car to the Opus Dei residence.

Chapter 95

Langdon and Sophie still wait for the library computer to provide the needed information. Finally, they get a result linking Isaac Newton's death to the poet Alexander Pope (A. Pope) who spoke at the scientist's funeral. Sir Isaac Newton was a knight (thus the "Sir") who was buried in Westminster Abbey. They have figured out the puzzling message.

Chapter 96

Silas awakes feeling uneasy. He sees a police car from his window. He hears footsteps in the corridor. He hides behind the door to his room. Silas attacks the two policemen who enter his room, disabling them. He rushes downstairs, understanding now that he has been betrayed. More police are pouring through the front door. Silas turns and runs to the women's door at the back. He crashes into another policeman who falls and drops his gun. Silas retrieves the gun, but he is shot and wounded by another policeman. Silas sees a shadow behind him and hands reaching out for him. He shoots the shadowy figure who calls out, "Silas, no!" as he falls, wounded. Silas realizes he has shot his beloved mentor, Bishop Aringarosa.

Analysis

The part of the cryptex message that refers to "Rosy flesh" is a clear reference to Mary Magdalene, the Grail, and the sacred feminine.

The subtheme of sexism arises again. Even after Sophie has deciphered the message, Teabing condescendingly "pat[s] her the knee," saying, "Well done, my dear."

Langdon thinks he has figured out one part of the puzzling message. The tombs they are looking for are in the Templars' Temple Church in London. He will later learn he is wrong. The altar boy they meet in the Church informs them that there are no tombs in the Church. The puzzle refers to a knight killed or buried by a pope, yet none of the tombs in the Church contain such a knight. Another part of the puzzle-message instructs the searchers to find an "orb" on the knight's tomb. This directive proves maddeningly hard to follow. Orbs of all types adorn many of the supposed tombs they find. The puzzle seems impossible to solve. Things get worse when the altar boy asserts that what they are looking at are not tombs but effigies. There are no bodies in the tombs. Langdon and Sophie cannot figure out the puzzle and are on the wrong track.

Langdon and Sophie go to a college library where they search a religion database to find "a knight a pope interred," now incorporating technology in their efforts to unravel seemingly opaque puzzles. After waiting impatiently, the computer provides the solution to the puzzling message: Langdon and Sophie go to Westminster Abbey to find Sir Isaac Newton's tomb.

Teabing lies to gain entrance to the Temple Church, a lie that seems to be for the sake of finding and revealing the spiritual truth of the Grail. When Sophie asks Langdon why the New Testament contains lies, he responds, "Every faith in the world is based on fabrication," or lies. However, the lies—and metaphors and symbols—of which Langdon speaks are not part of a conspiracy; they are intended to reinforce faith in God.

Rémy, Teabing's servant, is actually part of a conspiracy to steal the Grail. For Rémy the lure of the Grail is money and a life "of leisure," a "ticket to freedom and wealth." Rémy "didn't give a damn about the Grail." He is in it to get rich. He will be paid for his part in the conspiracy, though which conspirator for which he is working is still not apparent. When Rémy frees Silas from the back of the car, he seems to be working with Opus Dei. However, when Silas asks if Rémy is the Teacher directing the mission, Rémy says he is not.

The conspiracy to gain the power of the Grail again becomes violent, impelled in part by greed. Rémy enters the Church and grabs the altar boy. He has shown his face, something the Teacher forbade him to do. Rémy then does something that is not part of the conspiracy: he threatens to shoot Teabing unless Langdon gives up the cryptex. When Rémy blurts out, "You are not even looking in the right place [for the tomb]," Teabing is panicked by this statement, revealing the conspiracy for the Grail in a completely new light. The police's discovery of the bugging equipment used by Rémy in Teabing's barn loft seems to connect Rémy and Teabing in the same conspiratorial search for the Grail.

This potentially new conspiracy turns murderous when the person in the back of the car, presumably the altar boy, is killed. However, Rémy drives Silas to the Opus Dei residence. Silas's usefulness in the conspiracy seems to be at an end. The Teacher then murders Rémy for disobeying him. The Teacher now seems to be the leader of this conspiracy. The Church, it seems, is not involved.